Who can explain to me what's going on in Colombia?

Question

Hee hee, forgive me for my ignorance, but I don't understand why there are hostages. Please explain this to me!thank you. =)

Answer 1

Wow! Well written "mark p"!

...and as to the Q so as not to be "chatting"...

I lived in Colombia when the Medillin Cartel was just getting started and most coca was imported from the South. It was a mighty different place and seemed to be heading to a more Democratic government...at that time you had to be more worried about local police corruption that was fairly on par with its neighbors...I am so sorry to hear it has degraded so much because the Colombians are such wonderful people, mostly.

Answer 2

Okay... short answer, partly because Americans want drugs and maintain a prohibition on them (FARC gets 50% of its funding from drug trafficking).

It's complicated, basically we had the Medellin Cartel (Pablo Escobar) that dominated cocaine trafficking, they were brought down and quickly replaced by the Cali Cartel, which was splintered.  The demand for the narcotics remained and as the cartels left a vaccuum the guerilla FARC (and to a much lesser extent the smaller guerilla group ELN) picked up the slack, funding themselves through kidnapping ransoms and the drug trade (trafficking and taxing growers for "protection").  In response to the violence and instability caused by the cartels and then the guerillas, a paramilitary force (AUC) was formed.  This group was made up largely of ex-military personel.  At the same time, President Pastrana accepted a massive funding package from the US called Plan Colombia.  This is a military-heavy aid package designed to better equip and train the Colombian military.  Because of the connections of the AUC, funds and equipment from Plan Colombia were diverted from the military to the AUC (thus giving them tacit US support, as we knew it where it was going).  The AUC, in pursuit of the FARC and ELN used very "aggressive" tactics that made them certainly as bad, if not worse (as regards human rights) than the guerillas they pursued.  Eventually public pressure caused the US to pressure the Colombian government to distance itself from the AUC.

As the ensuing President (Uribe) took control peace negotiations with the AUC took place, but the AUC had found a lucrative funding stream in the drug trade and some refused to lay down their arms forcing leader Carlos Castano into hiding.  Much progress has since been made in disbanding the AUC, due in part to amnesty deals for non-leaders.

FARC, meanwhile continues to fund itself through the drug trade...

The US has shown that it can push or pull narcotics cultivation, but not diminish it long-term.  In the 80's and early 90's most the coca was grown in Peru and Bolivia.  With the Shining Path causing chaos of its own in Peru.  I believe that we are in a transition period as cultivation becomes decentralized from Colombia and moves into Brazil, Bolivia and Peru.

So, there are hostages in Colombia because the terror groups (the State Department considers FARC, ELN and AUC terror groups) get some funding from ransoms, and because kidnapping can be an effective application of terror when the victim is high-profile or otherwise deemed especially significant.

EDIT: A couple things to consider... Colombia is one of our strongest allies in the Western Hemisphere.  The Colombian constitution used to have 1 term presidential limits, but was amended to allow Uribe to take his second term.  A scandal has since occurred, that he may have bribed his way into getting the constitution amended... either way, they are alreadt talking about another amendment to let him serve a 3rd term.  Every week a new story comes out about ties between the Colombian government and the AUC, up to and including the President's family.  Colombia's a sovereign state, it can do what it wants... I think it's ludicrous to allow one person to be bigger than the state, but I'm not Colombian.  However, Colombia acts as a check on Venezuela- a state trying to diminish US power in the hemisphere.  Next time you hear a politician using flowery language about peace and spreading democracy, consider how we would respond to Colombia's internal issues if their relationship with the US was adversarial.